Online wardrobe

ABSTRACT

A wardrobe closet that assists users in selecting and purchasing clothing is provided. A radio frequency receiver scans tags embedded in clothing to identify the clothing. When a user removes an article of clothing from the wardrobe closet, the wardrobe closet suggests other articles of clothing that match the removed article of clothing. The wardrobe closet may also be connected to websites via the Internet. The wardrobe closet may determine the user&#39;s clothing needs and find clothing offered for sale at one or more web sites. The user is then allowed to purchase the clothing.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

This invention relates generally to wardrobe closets. More particularly,the invention provides methods and systems for managing a person'swardrobe with a computer system connected to the Internet.

2. Related Information

Typical wardrobe closets merely provide a mechanism for storing aperson's clothing. When selecting clothing, a person must search throughthe wardrobe closet and gather separate articles of clothing to form acoordinated outfit. Often times some articles of clothing may be storedin a portion of the wardrobe closet that make it unlikely that the userwill select those articles of clothing. Furthermore, it is oftendifficult for a person to remember the characteristics of every articleof clothing they have stored in their wardrobe closet. As a result, itis difficult to maximize the number of coordinated outfits they can beassembled from a person's clothing inventory.

When shopping in clothing stores, shoppers often look at a new articleof clothing and try to determine whether or not the new article ofclothing will form a coordinated outfit with one or more of theshopper's existing articles of clothing. Unfortunately, the shoppers areforced to try to remember characteristics like the colors and texturesof their existing clothing before making a purchasing decision. Thisimperfect process often results in a shopper returning a purchasedarticle of clothing after seeing the article of clothing next to one ormore other articles of clothing.

Therefore, there exists a need in the art for a system that assists theuser in managing the user's clothing inventory and facilitates addingadditional articles of clothing to the user's clothing inventory.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a wardrobe closet that assists users inselecting and purchasing clothing. The wardrobe closet allows the userto conveniently and efficiently manage the user's clothing inventory.

In one embodiment, the advantages of the present invention are realizedby a method of aiding a user in the selection of clothing. The methodincludes the steps of automatically identifying clothing stored in awardrobe closet and automatically identifying a first piece of clothingthat has been removed from the wardrobe closet. Next, the wardrobecloset automatically determines a second piece of clothing that isappropriate to wear with the first piece of clothing. An identificationof the second piece of clothing is presented to the user.

In another embodiment, a method of aiding a user in the selection ofclothing is provided. The method includes the steps of storing a user'sschedule of appointments in a memory and automatically identifyingclothing that has been removed from a wardrobe closet. A softwarealgorithm is executed to determine whether the clothing is appropriateto wear to the appointments included in the user's schedule ofappointments. The user is alerted when the clothing that has beenremoved from the wardrobe closet is not appropriate to wear to theappointments included in the user's schedule of appointments.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, a method of identifyingclothing at a store that may be of interest to a consumer is provided.The method includes the steps of receiving information identifyingclothing owned by the consumer and identifying clothing offered for saleby the store. Next clothing that may be of interest to the consumer isidentified. A representation of the clothing that may be of interest tothe consumer is then displayed.

An embodiment that includes a wardrobe closet that identifies clothingand transmits information to a wide area network is also provided. Thewardrobe closet includes a radio frequency receiver configured to readinformation included on radio frequency sensitive tags attached toclothing. A computer is coupled to the radio frequency receiver and awide area network and is configured to transmit information to the widearea network and receive information from additional computers coupledto the wide area network. The wardrobe closet also includes a displaydevice coupled to the computer that displays clothing information to auser.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example and not limitedin the accompanying figures in which like reference numerals indicatesimilar elements and in which:

FIG. 1 shows a typical prior art workstation and communicationconnections.

FIG. 2 illustrates a computer network system they can be used to selectand purchase clothing in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a wardrobe closet.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method for assisting a user in selecting clothing.

FIG. 5 illustrates a method for assisting a user in making clothingpurchasing decisions.

FIG. 6 illustrates a method for using a wardrobe closet to assist a userin making clothing purchasing decisions.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method for assisting a user in purchasing clothingat a brick and mortar store.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a system that utilizes a smart card toassist a user in making clothing purchasing decisions.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Elements of the present invention may be implemented with computersystems, such as the system 100 shown in FIG. 1. Computer 100 includes acentral processor 110, a system memory 112 and a system bus 114 thatcouples various system components including the system memory 112 to thecentral processor unit 110. System bus 114 may be any of several typesof bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, aperipheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of busarchitectures. The structure of system memory 112 is well known to thoseskilled in the art and may include a basic input/output system (BIOS)stored in a read only memory (ROM) and one or more program modules suchas operating systems, application programs and program data stored inrandom access memory (RAM).

Computer 100 may also include a variety of interface units and drivesfor reading and writing data. In particular, computer 100 includes ahard disk interface 116 and a removable memory interface 120respectively coupling a hard disk drive 118 and a removable memory drive122 to system bus 114. Examples of removable memory drives includemagnetic disk drives and optical disk drives. The drives and theirassociated computer-readable media, such as a floppy disk 124 providenonvolatile storage of computer readable instructions, data structures,program modules and other data for computer 100. A single hard diskdrive 118 and a single removable memory drive 122 are shown forillustration purposes only and with the understanding that computer 100may include several of such drives. Furthermore, computer 100 mayinclude drives for interfacing with other types of computer readablemedia.

A user can interact with computer 100 with a variety of input devices.FIG. 1 shows a serial port interface 126 coupling a keyboard 128 and apointing device 130 to system bus 114. Pointing device 128 may beimplemented with a mouse, track ball, pen device, or similar device. Ofcourse one or more other input devices (not shown) such as a joystick,game pad, satellite dish, scanner, touch sensitive screen or the likemay be connected to computer 100.

Computer 100 may include additional interfaces for connecting devices tosystem bus 114. FIG. 1 shows a universal serial bus (USB) interface 132coupling a video or digital camera 134 to system bus 114. An IEEE 1394interface 136 may be used to couple additional devices to computer 100.Furthermore, interface 136 may configured to operate with particularmanufacture interfaces such as FireWire developed by Apple Computer andi.Link developed by Sony. Input devices may also be coupled to systembus 114 through a parallel port, a game port, a PCI board or any otherinterface used to couple and input device to a computer.

Computer 100 also includes a video adapter 140 coupling a display device142 to system bus 114. Display device 142 may include a cathode ray tube(CRT), liquid crystal display (LCD), field emission display (FED),plasma display or any other device that produces an image that isviewable by the user. Additional output devices, such as a printingdevice (not shown), may be connected to computer 100.

Sound can be recorded and reproduced with a microphone 144 and a speaker166. A sound card 148 may be used to couple microphone 144 and speaker146 to system bus 114. One skilled in the art will appreciate that thedevice connections shown in FIG. 1 are for illustration purposes onlyand that several of the peripheral devices could be coupled to systembus 114 via alternative interfaces. For example, video camera 134 couldbe connected to IEEE 1394 interface 136 and pointing device 130 could beconnected to USB interface 132.

Computer 100 can operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections to one or more remote computers or other devices, such as aserver, a router, a network personal computer, a peer device or othercommon network node, a wireless telephone or wireless personal digitalassistant. Computer 100 includes a network interface 150 that couplessystem bus 114 to a local area network (LAN) 152. Networkingenvironments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computernetworks and home computer systems.

A wide area network (WAN) 154, such as the Internet, can also beaccessed by computer 100. FIG. 1 shows a modem unit 156 connected toserial port interface 126 and to WAN 154. Modem unit 156 may be locatedwithin or external to computer 100 and may be any type of conventionalmodem such as a cable modem or a satellite modem. LAN 152 may also beused to connect to WAN 154. FIG. 1 shows a router 158 that may connectLAN 152 to WAN 154 in a conventional manner.

It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplaryand other ways of establishing a communications link between thecomputers can be used. The existence of any of various well-knownprotocols, such as TCP/IP, Frame Relay, Ethernet, FTP, HTTP and thelike, is presumed, and computer 100 can be operated in a client-serverconfiguration to permit a user to retrieve web pages from a web-basedserver. Furthermore, any of various conventional web browsers can beused to display and manipulate data on web pages.

The operation of computer 100 can be controlled by a variety ofdifferent program modules. Examples of program modules are routines,programs, objects, components, data structures, etc., that performparticular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Thepresent invention may also be practiced with other computer systemconfigurations, including hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems,microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCS,minicomputers, mainframe computers, personal digital assistants and thelike. Furthermore, the invention may also be practiced in distributedcomputing environments where tasks are performed by remote processingdevices that are linked through a communications network. In adistributed computing environment, program modules may be located inboth local and remote memory storage devices.

FIG. 2 illustrates a system for managing clothing in accordance with anembodiment of the invention. A wardrobe closet 200 includes a computer204, a display 202 and may be connected to a wide area network, such asthe Internet 206. The structure of wardrobe closet 200 will be describedin greater detail with reference to FIG. 3. Furthermore, the operationof wardrobe closet 200 and the remaining elements shown in FIG. 2 willbe described in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 4–7.

Wardrobe closet 200 may store and transmit information relating to theclothing owned and acquired by a user. In one embodiment of theinvention, the information is transmitted through the Internet 206 to awardrobe server 208. Wardrobe server 208 may store information for avariety of different users and may be implemented with a variety ofconventional components. Wardrobe server 208 includes a clothinginventory memory module 210 that may be used to store a user's clothinginformation. The user's clothing sizes may be stored in a clothing sizesmemory module 212 and the user's clothing preferences may be stored in aclothing preference module 214. Additional clothing information may alsobe stored in wardrobe server 208. For example the identification ofclothing stores may be stored in clothing store memory module 216 and auser's favorite stores may be stored in store preference memory module218. Clothing that the user wishes to purchase in the future may bestored in a wish list memory module 220.

Access to wardrobe server 208 may be controlled by information containedin access data module 222. A variety of different methods may be used tocontrol access to wardrobe server 208. In one embodiment of theinvention, the user is required to enter a personal identificationnumber (PIN) before accessing wardrobe server 208. In another embodimentof the invention, an access code is read from a smart card to permitaccess to wardrobe server 208. The overall operation of wardrobe server208 may be governed by an operating system program 224 in conjunctionwith a controller 226. Operating system program 224 and controller 226may be implemented with a variety of conventional programs andelectronic components that are well-known to those skilled in the art.Wardrobe server 208 also includes an interface 228, such as a modem,that allows wardrobe server 208 to communicate with the Internet 206.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment in which wardrobe server 208 isseparated from wardrobe closet 200. Of course, one or more of thecomponents shown in wardrobe server 208 may be included in wardrobecloset 200. Wardrobe server 208 may also be hosted by a trusted thirdparty. A fee may be required when parties such as a brick & mortar store234 and a store web site 230 retrieve information from wardrobe server208. The fee may be a one-time fee that retailers pay to be part of thenetwork, a fee based on the amount information retrieved, or a fee basedon other factors.

A variety of websites may be connected to Internet 206. FIG. 2 shows astore web site 230 that allows consumers to purchase clothing online. Aweather web site 232 is also shown. Weather web site 232 may provideinformation to wardrobe closet 200 to aid in the selection of clothingin a manner that will be described in detail below. Of course, numerousadditional websites may also be included to allow users to purchaseclothing and obtain information. In addition to websites, the systemshown in FIG. 2 also includes a brick and mortar store 234. Brick andmortar store 234 may include a computer 236, a display 238 and a kiosk240. The operation of these components will be in described in detailbelow.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a wardrobe closet in accordance withone embodiment of the invention. A radio frequency (RF) receiver 302 mayscan RF tags or sensors that are embedded in clothing. Texas Instrumentsmanufactures suitable receivers and tags under the brand name Tag-it.The information obtained from radio frequency receiver 302 istransmitted to a serial port interface 304. Computer 204 storesinformation obtained from serial port interface 304 in a clothingsection 308 of a memory 306. Of course, the present invention may beimplemented with other tags or sensors such as Electronic Product Code(EPC) tags. Furthermore, RF receiver 302 may be replaced with a receiveroperating at a different frequency, an optical reader or another readercapable of reading tags or sensors.

Wardrobe closet 200 also includes a personal digital assistant (PDA)interface 310 coupled to serial port interface 304. The user may storeschedule information in a PDA and enter the information into a schedulesection 312 of memory 306 via PDA interface 310. Wardrobe closet 200also includes a modem 314 coupling computer 204 to the Internet 206.Information such as weather conditions in one or more cities may beretrieved from Internet 206 and stored in weather section 316 of memory306. A video adapter 320 may be used to cause display 202 to displayinformation stored in memory 306 or retrieved from the Internet 206.Additional uses for the information stored in memory 306 and informationretrieved from the Internet 206 will be described below.

Wardrobe closet 200 may also include a smart card interface 318 that maybe used to couple a smart card (not shown) to computer 204. A smart cardmay include information that identifies the user, identifies clothingowned by the user or any of the other information that may be stored inmemory 306 or in wardrobe server 208.

One skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can beimplemented with several wardrobe closets. In one embodiment, eachwardrobe closet has a separate RF receiver for identifying clothing andeach of the RF receivers may be coupled to a common computer.Alternatively, each wardrobe closet may include a computer and thecomputers may be coupled together.

Wardrobe closets, such as wardrobe closet 200, may be distributed aspromotional items. Brick & mortar store 234 or store web site 230 mayprovide wardrobe closets to users at reduced or no cost to the user inexchange for the user only using the wardrobe closet to shop or purchaseclothing from brick & mortar store 234 or store web site 230.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method that aids a user in the selection ofclothing in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. First, instep 402, the wardrobe closet identifies clothing that has been removedby the user. RF receiver 302 (shown in FIG. 3) may scan the items ofclothing stored in wardrobe closet 200. By determining the items presentduring two successive scans, the articles of clothing removed from thewardrobe closet may be identified.

In step 404, the wardrobe closet suggests a matching article ofclothing. For example, when the user removes a shirt, the wardrobecloset may identify a matching pair of pants, shoes and a tie that forma coordinated outfit with the selected shirt. The suggestions providedby the wardrobe closet may be updated as a user removes additionalarticles of clothing. For example, after the user removes a shirt and apair of pants, the wardrobe closet may determine which pair of shoesform a coordinated outfit with the selected shirt and pants. One skilledin the art will appreciate that computer 204 may include a softwareprogram for making such determinations based on factors such as styleand color.

Next, in step 406, the wardrobe closet retrieves the user's scheduleinformation. The user's schedule may be stored in a PDA, locally inmemory, in a memory connected to Internet 206 or in some other location.The current or forecasted weather conditions may also be retrieved instep 408. In one embodiment of the invention, weather information isretrieved from a web site connected to Internet 206 in a conventionalmanner. Computer 204 may be programmed to retrieve weather informationthat corresponds to locations identified in the user's schedule.

In step 410, the wardrobe closet determines whether the selectedclothing is appropriate for the user's schedule and weather conditions.Each piece of clothing may be classified to aid in the determination.For example, a specific suit jacket may be classified to indicate thatis appropriate to wear to formal meetings during the summer.

In the event that the selected clothing is not appropriate for eitherthe user's schedule or predicted weather conditions, the wardrobe closetmay select alternative clothing in step 412. The selections may bedisplayed on display 202. Computer 204 may include a software programthat performs steps 406–712.

Of course, there are a variety of alternative methods that wardrobecloset 200 can utilize to aid the user in the selection of clothing. Forexample, a group of users may be choose to allow their respectivewardrobe closets to share information, such as by transmittinginformation over the Internet 206. Before a meeting or some other event,a user may utilize the user's wardrobe closet to determine what clothingthe other users are wearing to the meeting or social event. The usersmay agree to remove the clothing they plan to wear from their wardrobecloset the evening before the event so that each user will know what theother users plan to wear. Wardrobe closet 200 may be programmed to alerta user when the user selects clothing that will make the user over orunder dressed when compared to the other users. A user may also bealerted when the user selects clothing that is the same or similar toclothing selected by other users.

FIG. 5 illustrates a method that may be used to assist users inpurchasing clothing. In step 502, the wardrobe closet 200 identifies anarticle of clothing that has been added. RF receiver 302 may scan thearticles of clothing to allow for the identification of clothing thathas been added to the wardrobe closet in the manner described above.Next, in step 504, wardrobe closet 200 determines whether the article ofclothing is a new article of clothing. This step may be performed bycomparing an identification of the article of clothing to theidentification of clothing stored in a memory within computer 204 or tothe identification of clothing stored in clothing inventory memory 210.

If the article of clothing is identified as a new article of clothing,articles of clothing owned by the users that form coordinated outfitswith the new article of clothing may be displayed on display 202 in step506. Computer 204 may include a software program for performing thisfunction. Additionally, in step 508, computer 204 may search web sites,such as websites 230 and 234, to locate new articles of clothing thatmay be of interest to the user. The search process may include utilizingthe user's clothing preferences stored in memory 214 and storepreferences stored in memory 218. Additional stores identified inclothing stores memory 216 may also be searched.

In step 510, the wardrobe closet determines whether or not the userwishes to purchase article of clothing produced by the search. The newclothing along with price and store information may be displayed ondisplay 202 and the user may be prompted to indicate whether or not theuser wishes to purchase the item(s). If the user does not wish topurchase the items, in step 512 the wardrobe closet determines if theuser wishes to store an identification of the new clothing in the user'swish list. The user's wish list may be updated by adding anidentification of the new clothing to wish list memory 220 in step 514.If the user does wish to purchase the items, the items may be directlyordered from wardrobe closet 200. Wardrobe closet 200 may transmitinformation such as he user's credit card information and shippinginformation. Information that facilitates ordering clothing may bestored in memory 306.

FIG. 6 illustrates an alternative method that may be used to assistusers in purchasing clothing. First, in step 602, the wardrobe closetidentifies an article of clothing that has been removed. Next, in step604, computer 204 may search web sites, such as websites 230 and 234, tolocate new articles of clothing that may form coordinated outfits withthe removed article of clothing. The search results are displayed instep 606. The search results may be displayed on display 202.

The wardrobe closet then determines whether the user removes anotherarticle of clothing in step 608. If the user does not remove anotherarticle of clothing, in step 614 the user is provided with the optionsof purchasing items identified by the search or adding items to theuser's wish list. If the user does remove another article of clothing, anew search is performed for articles of clothing that form coordinatedoutfits with the two removed articles of clothing in step 610. Thesearch results may then be displayed to the user in step 612.

The method illustrated in FIG. 6 allows a user to shop for new clothingby merely removing clothing from wardrobe closet 200. For example, theuser may remove a shirt and pair of pants from wardrobe closet 200 andreview the search results for shoes that form a coordinated outfit withthe shirt and pair of pants. Of course more than two articles ofclothing may be removed from wardrobe closet 200 and the search may benarrowed and performed based on all of the articles of clothing removedfrom wardrobe closet 200. The search may also be broadened by replacingarticles of clothing. Furthermore, a single search may be performedafter all of the articles of clothing have been removed from wardrobecloset 200 instead after each article of clothing has been removed.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method that allows the user to use a smart cardwhile shopping at a brick and mortar store. In step 702, the informationstored on smart card is read. FIG. 8 shows an embodiment in which brickand mortar store 234 includes a kiosk 240 for reading a smart card 802.In one embodiment of the invention, information such as the informationstored in wardrobe closet memory 306 and wardrobe server 208 is storeddirectly on smart card 802. This embodiment allows the user toessentially carry the user's wardrobe in the user's wallet and toretrieve the information stored on the smart card in a variety ofdifferent locations. Alternatively, smart card 802 may contain anidentification of the user and upon entry of smart card 802 into kiosk240, computer 236 retrieves the user's information from wardrobe closet200 or wardrobe server 208 via the Internet 206.

Next, in step 704, clothing is selected that would be of interest to theuser. Computer 236 may contain a software program that searches throughthe user's clothing inventory, the inventory of brick and mortar store234 and selects clothes that the user may be interested in purchasing.For example, a software program may determine that the user does nothave any shirts that form coordinated outfits with a particular pair ofpants owned by the user. The program may then select such a shirt fromthe brick and mortar store inventory. In step 706, the selected articlesof clothing are displayed to the user. The articles of clothing may bedisplayed on display 238 next to images of the user's existing clothing.This feature allows the user to make judgments relating to color andtexture without being forced to rely and the user's memory. Finally, instep 708 one or more coordinated outfits that include the selected itemsmay be displayed to the user.

A user may also allow other parties and trusted merchants to access theuser's clothing information. For example, a husband may allow his wifeto access information stored in wardrobe server 208 to facilitateshopping. In one embodiment of the invention, third parties and trustedmerchants may access the user's clothing information and makesuggestions on what a user should buy next. The clothing suggestions maybe stored in wardrobe server 208. Furthermore, the present invention isnot limited to clothing embodiments and may be extended to other areas.

While the present invention has been described in connection with theillustrated embodiments, it will be appreciated and understood thatmodifications may be made without departing from the true spirit andscope of the invention.

1. A computer-implemented method of aiding a user in a selection ofclothing for an event, comprising: (a) representing wardrobe informationwith a user wardrobe closet of the first user on a computer system, thewardrobe information being indicative of owned clothing of the firstuser, the wardrobe information being stored on a first computer memoryelectrically coupled to the computer system; (b) identifying clothingstored in the user wardrobe closet of the first user from the wardrobeinformation by accessing the first computer memory; (c) automaticallyidentifying, by the computer system, a first piece of clothing that hasbeen removed from the user wardrobe closet of the first user; (d)storing, on a second computer memory, clothing information describing aselection of clothing by another user, the second computer memory beingelectrically coupled to the computer system; (e) receiving the clothinginformation from the second computer memory, the clothing informationbeing indicative of another piece of clothing that the other user plansto wear at the event and a degree of formality associated with theevent; (f) determining a second piece of clothing for the first userbased on a software program for making a determination based on factorsof style and color with the first piece of clothing; (g) comparing theselection of clothing by the other user with the first and secondclothing pieces identified to the first user; and (h) presenting to thefirst user: an identification of the second piece of clothing; and analert when the second piece of clothing and the first piece of clothingare not in agreement with the degree of formality and the clothinginformation about the other piece of clothing that the other user plansto wear.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein (b)comprises reading tags embedded in the clothing.
 3. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further including: (i)determining a weather condition; and (j) alerting the first user whenone of the first and second pieces of clothing is not appropriate towear in view of the weather condition identified in step (i).
 4. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein step (i) comprisesretrieving weather information from a source connected to a computernetwork.
 5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein step (c)comprises: identifying clothing stored in the user wardrobe closetduring a first time period by scanning tags attached to the clothing;identifying clothing stored in the user wardrobe closet during a secondtime period by scanning tags attached to the clothing; and comparing theinformation obtained during the first time period to the informationobtained during the second time period.